It has frequently been the practice to install battens (stiffeners) in sails to enlarge the sail area which could be carried effectively on a given rig. However, improvements in the art of battens have not kept pace with recent improvements in sailing rigs. Recent improvements in so-called roller-furling sail rigs have made such rigs quite popular. These rigs are popular at least in part because of the speed and ease with which sail area can be adjusted. In these rigs the sail is generally wound up around a axis which runs along the leading edge (luff) of the sail. However, one of the drawbacks of these rigs has been that no batten is available which will both stiffen the free or trailing edge (leech) of the sail when the sail is set and also roll up with the sail when the sail is furled.